About Last Night... (1986)

Director Edward Zwick's romantic comedy-drama was based on David Mamet's 1974 play "Sexual Perversity in Chicago." It starred two celebrated members of Hollywood's 'Brat Pack' at the time.

It told about the relationship between two Windy City twenty-somethings in a singles-crazed world, who met at Mother's bar in Chicago's Gold Coast:

• Debbie (up and coming star Demi Moore - pre-implants), 24 year-old ad agency art director, sensual and with a deep voice
• Danny (Rob Lowe), grocery wholesaler

Two of Hollywood's 'Brat Pack' - Demi Moore and Rob Lowe

The two entered into a torrid relationship that began with a passionate one-night stand (and they also made love seated in a bathtup as the shower water drenched them from above), and then struggled to work out things realistically and to deal with commitment in their first year (including the inevitable breakup and reconciliation). Both males often confided with their best friends, Danny with loud-mouthed boaster Bernie (James Belushi), and Debbie with embittered and shrewish Joan (Elizabeth Perkins).

Back to School (1986)

This was stand-up comedian Rodney Dangerfield's more popular follow-up comedy film, after Easy Money (1983).

Dangerfield headlined as Thornton Melon - a leering millionaire tycoon who improbably attended college (for carousing and romancing) with his son.

Nudity was exhibited by Leslie Scarborough (aka Leslie Huntly) as a startled sorority Co-ed #1 in the shower. When her nudity was revealed behind the shower curtain, Thornton stated: "Take it easy, honey, I didn't see a thing," then opened the curtain a second time for another look.

Betty Blue (1986, Fr.) (aka 37°2 Le Matin)

Director Jean-Jacques Beineix's erotic drama was a big commercial hit in France. Its title was the morning temperature 37.2 degrees (Celsius) (or 99 degrees Fahrenheit) of a pregnant woman. There was a longer running time (191 minutes) for the original Director's Cut release compared to the North American release length (121 minutes).

The emotional French sex drama, nominated for Best Foreign Language film, was noted for its opening - an ardent, extended thrusting love-making scene set in a beachside shack - filmed with a two-minute slow-zoom toward a couple who were lying sideways on a bed beneath a portrait of the Mona Lisa (the subtitles translated: "The forecast was for storms"):

• Betty (Beatrice Dalle), a free-spirited, sexually-aggressive, pouty-lipped and emotionally unstable manic-depressive
• Zorg (Jean-Hugues Anglade), a lonely drifter, novelist and menial laborer-repairman/painter

The Film's Opening Sequence - A Slow-Zoom Toward Betty (Beatrice Dalle) and Zorg

In another scene she unabashedly coerced her lover to provide her with oral sex by pushing his head down to her genital area. Their love (after many sequences of uninhibited and explicit sexual activity - and full frontal nudity for both sexes, especially in the longer version) was eventually destroyed by their instability, possessiveness and literal amour fou - leading to the hospitalized, insane, self-wounded, and broken-down heroine's euthanasia by pillow smothering.

Blue Velvet (1986)

Director David Lynch's bizarre and nightmarish film of the dark-side of life Blue Velvet (1986) contained a pair of grotesque victim/voyeur/abuse sex scenes.

Hiding in her apartment's closet, clean-cut, innocent, small-town college student Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) voyeuristically watched nightclub singer Dorothy Valens (Isabella Rossellini) as she disrobed to a black bra, black panties, and red high-heeled shoes. She stripped naked in the rear bathroom, and then reached for her blue velvet robe from the closet. He heard a drawer open in the kitchen as she reached for a large knife, and then suddenly flung open the closet door where he was caught hiding. She threatened him at knife-point into intimidation and forced him to get on his knees. She cut his face with the knife blade, turned the tables on him, made him her voyeuristic prey, and forced him to undress in front of her, all the way down to his underwear and socks.

Jeffrey's First Confrontation with Dorothy (Isabella Rossellini)

She pulled down his underpants to his knees, then began touching, fondling, and kissing (and fellating?) him, and forced him to remain motionless. She asked: "Do you like that?" and then asked a question combining domination, pain, power, pleasure, and humiliation: "Don't touch me or I'll kill you? Do you like talk like that?" Responding with nervous ecstasy, arousal, but defenseless fear, he was led to the couch to lie down where she straddled him and kissed him. Three loud knocks at the door frightened Dorothy. Frantically fearing the man's arrival and with the knife gleaming above Jeffrey, she told him to head back into the closet.

Jeffrey watched in horror, hiding behind a wardrobe closet door, as Dorothy was terrorized by her visitor - evil, psychotic, blackmailing, perverse and depraved villainous kidnapper Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper). The scene was disturbing, cruel, sadomasochistic, and kinky. Demanding and condescending to her, Frank quickly established an abusive master/victim relationship over Dorothy as she accommodated his depraved preferences. The 'dark' scene was intercut with a frightened Jeffrey surreptitiously viewing the shadowy, broken images between the slats of the distasteful ordeal from his hiding place in the closet:

Frank: Spread your legs. Wider. Show it to me. (She slowly opened her legs wider and adjusted her robe, while Frank stared at her crotch and drank his bourbon.) Don't you f--kin' look at me!

Traumatized, Jeffrey watched Dorothy being tormented as foul-mouthed Frank's sexual slave/whore. He repeatedly demanded that she look away from him - denying her the sight of his 'dark' nature. [In a symbolic sense, Dorothy was "Mommy" and Frank was "Daddy" or "Baby."] The abusive scene was heightened when the leather black-dressed Frank reached for a portable, plastic gas-inhaling mechanism and mask on his belt. While he placed the mask over his mouth and nose, he snorted and inhaled (helium or nitrous oxide?) gas to heighten his sexual excitement, exhibiting infantile-regressive, animalistic/reproductive, and compulsive-addictive behavior. He debased her as a prostitute, mother figure, and copulatory partner in the natural world:

Frank: Mommy. (He moved toward her, kneeling in front of her.) Mommy. Mommy. Mommy.
Dorothy: Mommy loves you.
Frank: Baby wants to f--k. Get ready to f--k. You f--ker's f--ker. You f--ker. (He slugged her in the face.) Don't you f--kin' look at me!

After another gasp of gas, Frank begged and whined menacingly: "Baby wants blue velvet." Dorothy stuffed part of her blue robe into his mouth to satisfy his obsession with textured fabrics. As he began to feel her breasts, he sucked, chewed, and bit the velvet cloth. Then he seized her and threw her down to the floor, spewing vulgar words. Frank removed a pair of scissors, menacingly snipping with them in mid-air above her face and body:

Don't f--kin' look at me. Don't f--kin' look at me. Don't you look at me. Daddy's coming. (He stuffed the end of her blue robe belt into her mouth and the other end into his own mouth.) Daddy's coming home. Don't you f--kin' look at me. Daddy's coming home...

And then after forcefully touching her genitals, he mounted her and started humping her with his unbuckled pants still on. He moved frenziedly faster and faster until climaxing in a brief and brutal f--k. After getting off of her, he slugged her again in the face, hideously threatening her again: "Don't you f--kin' look at me." Standing astride her on the floor before he left, he warned: "Stay alive baby. Do it for Van Gogh." Then he marched out of the apartment, shutting the door behind him and leaving her crumpled on the floor.

Subsequently, Jeffrey took Dorothy into his arms. She opened her robe to reveal her left breast, tempting him. She added: "See my breast? You can feel it. My nipple. Still hard. You can touch it. You can feel it." Jeffrey responded, touching her. She asked: "Do you like the way I feel?" He whispered: "Yes." Then she requested: "Feel me. Hit me," but Jeffrey refused and told her to "stop it," even though she kept pleading: "Hit me!"

Later, he was lured back to her bedroom, as the sonic signature of the cavernous howling in the ear was heard. In close-up, their naked bodies made love on the blue-silky sheets of her bed. Again, she demanded to be hit. Jeffrey (while rescuing Dorothy!) was goaded into slapping her in the mouth. He overcame his resistance to abusing her after she begged him to please her - her moist red lips appeared, with sparkling white teeth. Again, he hit her - as the flames grew and the animalistic howling sound intensified during their violent, erotic love-making in the darkness. She told him: "I have your disease in me now."

Gratuitous Nudity of Isabella Rossellini?

One of the often criticized scenes of gratuitous nudity was the later scene in which a naked and battered Dorothy shockingly appeared on the Beaumont's front lawn. Film critic Roger Ebert Ebert criticized how she was misogynistically depicted in the film: "degraded, slapped around, humiliated and undressed in front of the camera. And when you ask an actress to endure those experiences, you should keep your side of the bargain by putting her in an important film."

Caravaggio (1986, UK)

Writer/director Derek Jarman's cinematic achievement was an artful, R-rated, flashbacked biopic, involving a love triangle between:

• Michelangelo Merisa da Caravaggio (Nigel Terry), a 17th century, church-funded, iconoclastic, homosexual Renaissance-Baroque artist-painter, with Vatican connections
• Ranuccio Thomasoni (Sean Bean), a streetfighter, hired to be hunky model and muse for Caravaggio; bi-sexual, with whom Caravaggio was lustfully obsessed
• Lena (Tilda Swinton in her debut film role), Ranuccio's androgynous lover

Lena also served as Caravaggio's Mary Magdalene model. Although the film had little explicit sexuality, the most striking scene involved Ranuccio kissing Caravaggio in order to claim his gold coin payments for having posed.

When Lena was found murdered by drowning, suspect Ranuccio was arrested. Carvaggio went to the Pope to get him exonerated and Ranuccio was released. Afterwards, he admitted to Caravaggio that he had murdered Lena to bring them together. Caravaggio angrily sliced Ranuccio's throat and killed him.

Children of a Lesser God (1986)

Randa Haines' directorial debut film was about communication and opening up. It told about the slow developing romance between:

• Sarah Norman (Oscar-winning Marlee Matlin in a debut performance), bitter, hearing-impaired
• James Leeds (William Hurt), an unconventional deaf school teacher

He asserted to her: "You are the most mysterious, beautiful, angry person I have ever met." During a notable swimming pool scene, there was a graceful nude underwater swim and embrace between them. James literally 'fell' in love with her and into the pool - "I am falling into the pool with you!"

Devil in the Flesh (1986, It./Fr.) (aka Il Diavolo in Corpo, or Le Diable Au Corps)

Rebellious and provocative Italian film director Marco Bellocchio made this controversial X-rated erotic film (also available in a toned-down R-rated version) with a heavy dose of politics. It was a very loose updating of Raymond Radiguet's 1923 romantic novel, set during World War I about the passionate affair of an adolescent boy with an older woman who was married to a French soldier at the front. The novel had already been filmed in 1947, with 25 year-old Gerard Philipe in the role of the teenager.

The two major roles in this newest version of the story were:

• Giulia Dozza (Maruschka Detmers), unstable, possibly schizophrenic and giggling
• Andrea (Federico Pitzalis), an innocent younger high school student

It was one of the first major films to feature an international, well-known mainstream actress (Dutch-born French actress Maruschka Detmers) performing an unsimulated oral sex act of fellatio on screen (almost 20 years before the same kind of scene in The Brown Bunny (2003)). In contrast to the bold sex occurring, the pleasured Andrea was relating the political story of Lenin's return to St. Petersburg in the spring of 1917.

Giulia Dozza (Maruschka Detmers)

Giulia was engaged in a passionate affair with Andrea while her leftist, Red-Brigade-type radical terrorist/fiancee Giacomo (Riccardo de Torrebruna), actually a turncoat, was imprisoned and on trial for sabotage and murder. They unsuccessfully attempted to keep the affair secret from the future mother-in-law. One of the film's many twists or subplots was the fact that Giulia's ex-psychologist was Andrea's father. Pressure mounted on their heated affair as the trial was coming to an end, and she would be forced to make a choice.

8 Million Ways to Die (1986)

Director Hal Ashby's last under-rated film was this R-rated edgy, unconventional and believable crime thriller, boasting a screenplay co-written by Oliver Stone (although he reportedly disowned the film for its many improvised lines). Budgeted at $18 million, it was a monumental flop - one of three film disasters that forced its independent production-distribution company Producers Sales Organization (PSO) into bankruptcy (the other two films were The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986) and 9 1/2 Weeks (1986)).

After losing both his job as a LA narcotics cop and his family (wife and daughter) due to his ever-present drinking problem, Matt Scudder (Jeff Bridges) was struggling as a recovering alcoholic and attending AA meetings (now six months sober). At a luxurious mansion of black boxer turned pimp Willie 'Chance' Walker (Randy Brooks) (one of Scudder's ex-vice busts) where he was invited to a club party, he met thin, naive, and pretty prostitute Sunny (Baywatch star Alexandra Paul) who was aggressively sexual to him for unknown reasons, and debonair and sleazy crime boss/drug lord Angel Moldonado (Andy Garcia) with a love of sno-cones (playing a role similar to Pacino's Scarface).

Sunny enticed him away and invited herself to his apartment behind a bar, offering him both drugs and sex. After stripping naked in his bathroom and high on cocaine, she offered him her full-frontal nudity and the bold line:

"I wanna show you something. The street light makes my pussy hair glow in the dark. Cotton candy, the glow. I'll show you."

But he was intimidated by her and refused her typical come-ons, unsure of her motivations ("You're not only a whore, you're a dumb whore"). When she expressed fears of being harmed by her pimp "Chance" for wanting out of the hooker business and drug-dealing, she asked for Scudder's protection in fleeing to the airport the next day, but she was kidnapped and killed (shot in the back and thrown off a bridge), while Scudder was inexplicably left with $250,000 of drug money.

Scudder went on a harmful drinking binge, and after recovering temporarily vowed to seek revenge for her killer, befriending Sunny's blonde co-worker - another high-priced hooker named Sarah (Rosanna Arquette). When they also ended up at his apartment, she was so intoxicated that she threw up into his groin area, but the next day cleaned his kitchen and the two became romantically interested in each other - rivals against Angel. The tagline came into play: "He's already failed as a cop. If he fails again, it's her life."

When the film noirish story wound to its conclusion, 'Chance' was revealed to be laundering money through his chain of food markets, unaware that he was storing Angel's logs concealing cocaine in his warehouse. Angel, who had the tell-tale missing jewel from Sunny's necklace on his ring, was discovered to be Sunny's murderer. A shoot-out confrontation that was set up to have Angel swap Sarah for his stash of drug logs in a San Pedro warehouse (a precursor of the same scene in Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992)) turned ugly - the drugs were burned and 'Chance' was killed, leaving Angel as the only surviving gang member. A second shoot-out at the mansion on an elevator trolly between Scudder and Angel ended with the crime lord's death. In the film's unusual happy ending, Scudder was again sober (now for five weeks) and happy to be in love with Sarah.

Howard the Duck (1986)

In the clever opening credits sequence of this George Lucas executive-produced film, a parallel "duck-version" of Earth (Duckworld) was briefly viewed. The duckworld included copies of Playduck Magazine (with 'my hair-brushed beauty' - a female duck in the centerfold). A topless female duck with feather-covered boobs in her bathtub was also quickly seen as Howard T. Duck was expelled in his armchair to Earth. Once there, an unusual relationship developed between:

• white-feathered Howard T. Duck
• Beverly Switzler (Lea Thompson), a struggling Cleveland, Ohio punk rock musician

When Beverly happened to look into Howard's wallet (with more duck-versions of things like credit cards, dollar bills, etc.) while he was sleeping, she found a miniaturized duck-sized condom. There was also a strange sexual come-on seduction scene between Beverly and Howard when the furry duckie joined her in her bed:

Beverly: "I just can't seem to find the right man."
Howard: "Maybe it's not a man you should be lookin' for."
Beverly: "Aw, do you think I might find happiness in the animal kingdom, duckie?"
Howard: "Like they say, doll, love's strange. We could always give it a try. Hmm."
Beverly: "OK, let's go for it, Mr. Macho." (She removed an item of clothing.)
Howard: "Whaddya mean, OK? It was a joke. Listen, I'm pretty tired."
Beverly: "It's just that you're so incredibly soft and cuddly." (She started unbuttoning the front of his pajamas, as he became increasingly nervous.)
Howard: "Bev, let's be realistic. I mean, my apartment is zillions of miles from here. You're freaking taller than I am."
Bev: "I just can't resist your intense animal magnetism."
Howard: (The crest of feathers on Howard's head rose up.) "Whoops! Anyway, where will it all lead? Marriage, kids, a house in the suburbs?"
Beverly: "Let's just face it. It's fate." (She started to remove her top.)
Howard: "No, it's not. I've got a headache."
Beverly: "And I've got the aspirin."
Howard: "Be gentle." (He covered his head with the blanket to hide.)
Beverly: "Just one goodnight kiss, sweet duckie. (She removed the blanket.) Come on, Howard, I was just kidding. Goodnight."

Then, in silhouette after turning out the light, she placed a few short kisses on his extended duck bill. When caught in the act, the two were startled as intruder Carter (Miles Chapin) witnessed them and exclaimed:

"My god, this relationship defies all the laws of nature."

Manon of the Spring (1986, Fr/It.) (aka Manon des Sources)

This was the PG-rated part two of director Claude Berri's version of the Jean de Florette tale, a French historical drama based upon filmmaker/novelist Marcel Pagnol's 1952 rural romance. The first film was Jean de Florette (1986). The sequel would have been rated PG-13 in the mid to late 90s, and possibly R-rated in more conservative times.

In one of the film's most powerful, innocently erotic scenes, lithe blonde shepherdess Manon (Emmanuelle Beart), deceased hunchback Jean de Florette's/Jean Cadoret's (Gerard Depardieu) young daughter, playfully danced or frolicked fully nude in a spring or grotto while playing her dead father's harmonica. Meanwhile, smitten and vile Ugolin Soubeyran (Daniel Auteuil) lustfully spied upon her by crawling on rocks above her to get a glimpse of her body, after she bathed nude and then cavorted around.

The Name of the Rose (1986, Fr/W. Germ/It.)

Director Jean-Jacques Annaud's murder mystery-thriller set in the early 14th century was adapted from Umberto Eco's best-selling novel, about the solving of a deadly incident in the medieval Benedictine abbey involving a hidden library with priceless, forbidden books of knowledge. The film was told as a flashback, narrated by the elderly character of Adso, with the tagline describing the plot:

Who, in the name of God, is getting away with murder?

It was noted for an explicit seduction scene in a barn between:

• naive Adso of Melk (a young Christian Slater), young assistant of intellectual Franciscan monk William of Baskerville (Sean Connery)
• an unnamed mute (or feral) local peasant girl (Chilean co-star Valentina Vargas)

She had snuck into the abbey to exchange sex for food. She encouraged him to nuzzle his face between her bare breasts, and then goaded him further to experience sweaty, down-on-the-ground sex. She had him get on top of her, helped him remove his garments, and showed him how to proceed. In the film's closing narration, Adso remembered the girl fondly:

"And yet, now that I am an old, old man, I must confess that of all the faces that appear to me out of the past, the one I see most clearly is that of the girl of whom I've never ceased to dream these many long years. She was the only earthly love in my life, yet (pause) I never knew, nor ever learned, her name."

Nine 1/2 Weeks (1986) (aka 9 1/2 Weeks)

Director Adrian Lyne's much-talked-about soft-porn but mainstream film was co-produced and co-scripted by Zalman King. The erotic film became a blockbuster hit only after being released to video. Two inferior successors to the original film appeared in 1997 and 1998: Another 9 1/2 Weeks (aka Love in Paris) (1997), and The First 9 1/2 Weeks (1998).

It was the most explicitly sexual big-budget film since Last Tango in Paris (1973). The film was released in two versions: the US R-version and a longer, racier European version.

Shot in sequence, it told of a bizarre romance that included endlessly creative, obsessive, sado-masochistic and experimental ways that two erotic but kinky adventurers-lovers in New York aroused themselves during foreplay:

• John (Mickey Rourke), enigmatic Wall Street executive
• Elizabeth (Kim Basinger who had just recently posed for Playboy), art gallery assistant

John had Elizabeth play sensual sex games with food in front of a refrigerator, while spoon-feeding her many items (see below). The food was followed by a volley of kisses. [Note: The scene was parodied in Hot Shots! (1991) between Charlie Sheen and Valeria Golina but with vegetables and olives.]

Sensual Food-Sex Games With Elizabeth (Kim Basinger)
One Olive	Spoonfuls from Bowl of Maraschino Cherries	One Cherry Tomato	A Pint of Strawberries
One Glass of Champagne	Two Spoonfuls of Cough Syrup	Forkful of Cold Spiral Pasta	A Spoonful of Cherry Jello
Four Jalapeno Peppers	One Glass of Milk	Spray From A Shaken Bottle of Sparkling Water	Dripped Gobs of Honey

He also asked: "Does this excite you?" and caressed her naked body and nipples with many items to titillate her, with her eyes blindfolded, to the tune of Bryan Ferry's "Slave to Love." There were also scenes of kinky and raunchy sex on a dinner table, Elizabeth's striptease on the outer balcony (to the tune of Joe Cocker's "You Can Leave Your Hat On"), more sex behind a giant roof-top clock-face and in a rainy brick stairway, and a scene of Elizabeth masturbating while watching art slides.

Another controversial scene included one in which John hired a hooker (Cintia Cruz) to fondle the blindfolded Elizabeth - and then kissed the half-naked prostitute to make her jealous during the threesome, and another scene in which he brandished a whip as Elizabeth crawled across the floor and picked up money.

Room With a View (1986, UK)

Director James Ivory's elegant adaptation of E.M. Forster's 1908 novel told about British repression.

The tale involved young, feisty, passionate and ravishing Britisher Miss Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) who had her heart and sexuality awakened during a chaperoned trip to Florence with her spinister chaperone Charlotte Bartlett (Maggie Smith).

This occurred after being unexpectedly and impetuously kissed in a wheat barley field by handsome and intense free-spirited admirer George Emerson (Julian Sands).

The film also contained extended full-frontal male nudity in a scene in which Lucy discovered George, her brother Freddy (Rupert Graves) and overweight Reverend Mr. Beebe (Simon Callow) swimming naked in a pond and cavorting about.

She's Gotta Have It (1986)

Writer/director Spike Lee's R-rated, Rashomon-like comedy/drama, a low-budget independent film, was his first feature-length film - a black and white feminist comedy - with abundant female sexuality and nudity.

The breakout film, a "seriously sexy comedy," was revolutionary when it first screened at the Cannes Film Festival for its portrayal of a black woman as sexually-liberated, self-assured and free-thinking, who was juggling three sex partners:

• Jamie Overstreet (Tommy Redmond Hicks)
• Greer Childs (John Canada Terrell), self-obsessed model
• Mars Blackmon (Spike Lee), a bicycle messenger

Sexually-Liberated African-American Nola Darling (Tracy Camilla Johns) with Greer

It starred Tracy Camilla Johns (in her debut film) as successful African-American Nola Darling, a good-looking, independent-minded Brooklyn graphic artist who was engaged in a love triangle. The most memorable sexual encounter was early in the film when she had sex by candlelight with one of her beaux.

She simultaneously handled three disparate male lovers, who each wanted her commitment despite her resistance to belonging to one man ("I'm not a one-man woman. Bottom line"). One of her suitors eventually demanded: "Whose pussy is this?"

Something Wild (1986)

Jonathan Demme's offbeat, black comedy told about a developing relationship between two very opposite individuals. It starred fearless actress Melanie Griffith, appearing again after her eye-opening role as porn actress Holly Body in Body Double (1984). The film was a screwball road odyssey about two mismatched individuals who were also attracted to each other:

• staid and married, yuppie, NYC tax consultant and bond trader Charles Driggs (Jeff Daniels)
• free-spirited, kooky, black-wigged Audrey Hankel (Melanie Griffith), nicknamed Lulu - after sexy actress Louise Brooks' femme fatale character in Pandora's Box (1929)

She took off with Charles to New Jersey, where she engaged in kinky sex with him during the early part of their road trip - handcuffing him to a motel bed and making love to him (and calling his office), before they attended her high school reunion together. She claimed her name was Audrey when she introduced Charles to her mother.